1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an ink ribbon cassette for a label printer, such as a label printer for printing self-adhesive labels, wherein the printing substance is provided by a ribbon to the area adjacent the print head. More specifically, the present invention relates to a reusable printer ribbon cassette which is capable of accomodating ink ribbons having different widths. Such a cassette can have two internally toothed, connectable cores having parallel geometric axes, disposed at a lateral distance from one another and able to rotate in a housing or similar enclosure. Each of the cores can be provided with a shaft, and the shafts can be provided with drivers, whereby one of the shafts can be a drive shaft and the ribbon, or tape in general, can be unwound from the one core and wound up on the other core.
2. Background Information
Millions of cassettes of the type described above have been used for many years as audio cassettes, video cassettes or ink ribbon cassettes for typewriters and printers. But there are other materials in the form of tapes, ribbons or strips which could be handled more easily if a cassette could be designed for the desired use. Such tapes, for example, include ribbons coated with ink, e.g. like those used in thermal transfer printing. In known tape storage devices, the entire ribbon is wound onto a core which is inserted over a corresponding mandrel of the machine. The leading end of the ribbon must then be threaded through the machine and fastened to a take-up core. Depending on the configuration through which the ribbon must be fed, this process can undoubtedly be difficult and time-consuming, quite apart from the fact that the tape or ribbon can be damaged in the process.